Make Facebook great again

Intern-al Issues is a fortnightly blog written by our Intern Sean that looks at the latest issues and trends in digital marketing. Enjoy!

I read an article the other day about a woman who deleted the Facebook app from her phone. She didn’t delete her account, she could still access Facebook through web browsers, just not on the app.

Yes, I know, this is not ground-breaking news-worthy reporting but interesting nonetheless. This sort of activity reflects a common notion that feels like it is gaining momentum as of late – that perhaps people are becoming a little over Facebook and other social media sites.

Lately, social media has been under a bit of heat. The pressure is mounting for platforms such as Facebook and YouTube to moderate their content and be held accountable for what their users post.

Logan Paul, a YouTube star with 15 million subscribers, recently caused a huge controversy when he posted a video of him and his friends in the Aokigahaha Forest in Japan, sometimes referred to as the “suicide forest”, where they found a man who had hanged himself from a tree. This caused a lot of backlash and YouTube have since cut ties with Logan Paul regarding creating original content through his channel.

The social media criticism does not stop there. In a recent interview with American talk show host David Letterman, former President Barrack Obama called out Facebook and Twitter. Obama claims that people operate in a bubble and are only subjected to views they believe in.

So, I guess it comes as no surprise that Mark Zuckerberg has recently announced that Facebook will be making changes to its news feed. This change comes after Zuckerberg claimed his goal for 2018 is to fix Facebook.

“The world feels anxious and divided, and Facebook has a lot of work to do. Whether it’s protecting our community from abuse and hate…or making sure that time spent on Facebook is time well spent,” Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post.

“Making sure that time spent on Facebook is time well spent”.

That is the key take away from Zuckerberg’s post. And perhaps the reason why the woman mentioned before deleted the Facebook app from her phone. Facebook is no longer time well spent. Fake news, sponsored posts and bullying run rife on Facebook these days. And it appears that Mark Zuckerberg knows this.

In a recent interview with The New York Times, Zuckerberg continued to express his concerns with Facebook and claimed that he wants his daughters to think Facebook is good for the world.

An interesting take from a man who has often dismissed the negative effects social media could be having on society.

To me, I have always viewed Facebook as the big brother amongst social media sites. Facebook sets the tone, and the rest usually play catch up. Either that or they throw a stack of cash at a company, buy it, and who ever is left will continue to follow. Which ever way, the moderation of content begins with Facebook.

Maybe Zuckerberg doesn’t want his daughters growing up in a world where youth-targeted-YouTube channels like Logan Paul posts suicidal videos for all to see.

Facebook claims that changes to it’s news feed will create more meaningful content and make people happier. By minimising links and videos, they hope to encourage greater conversation amongst its users.

It would seem that Facebook have a long list of challenges to address in the near future, and they can now add people deleting their app from their phone to that list.